Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1887-02-11
sIcKENING SCENES.
But Six Bodies Identified Out Of
Forty-six Recovered.
Dispute Over the Sex eta Mem
berless Trunk.

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VI, Eel
IA sad spectacle was revealed (
the throngs of visitors who gathere,
at the scene of the wreck Saturda
and yesterday. Before them, imbed
ded in the melted ice, were the twist
ed iron work of the four cars which
had gone down to destruction ant
carried death to most of their occu
pants. Where they lay were grea
pools of water caused by the melting
Of ice, by the heat from the burning
cars. The fourth car from the rear
or one of the day coaches, was en-
tirely destroyed. What little oft re-
manned was hidden beneath little
lake of water, upon the surface oil
which fioated embers, bits of burned
clothing and pieces of charred human
flesh. 1t was impossible TO get al
this car yesterday but a gang of mer
will go to work upon 1t to-day and
will drag the depths for buried bed.
les. 1t is thought by some that al
least twenty bodies will be taken oul
from this charnal pool.
So far as is known, not soul es-
capped from this car, and it is cousid-
cred possible that there may be as
many as forty bodies beneath the de.
bris sunk in this pool. AT present
nothing can be seen but the burned
trucks, one set turned in one direction
and the other IN another. In the
other three cars, mixed up with the
debris, unrecognizable masses of hui
man flesh could be seen. The work
ofremoving the charred corpses from
the ruins was begun at 3 80 O'Clock
Saturday afternoon, upon the arrival
of Gov. Pngrce, one of the members
of the Vermont Railroad Commits
sion.
Upon the receipt of the news of the
disaster at st. Albans, a special train
was made up to go the scene of the
accident. On this train were Gov
Pingree, ex-Gov. Smith, President OF
the Central Vermont Railroad f. G.
Smith, Second Vice-President; John
w. Hobart, General Manager; Jas,
Fbss, General superintendent; Rail-
road Commission Fletcher, Alfred e.
Walden, Clerk of the Commission,
and o. NJ. Tinkham, agricultural ed
itor of the Waterman and Journal,
of Montpelier. The officials made a
careful examination of what remai:.-
ed of the bridge and collected some
testimony regarding its stability. All
were satisfied that the bridge was
entirely safe at the time of the acct.
dent. They also endeavored to ascer-
tain the cause of the accident. En-.
gineer Pierce, as most of the passen-
gers think, is of the belief that II was
caused by broken rail about TWEEN
ty-five rods from the bridge. 9th
ers are of the opinion that the accident
was due TO a broken journal on the
Pullman car "Paritan." This was the
last car on the train, but 1t was
known to have been the first car to
leave track, and it is argued that a
broken rail would have thrown the
first car instead of the last. This
point, however, may never be set.
tied.
The official inspectors next visited
the blackened wreck upon the ice
Picking their way carefully among
the debris of the puritan" they dis.
covered the remains of no less than
six bodies which they could pick out
sometimes by their distinct resem
blance to the human form and some,
times by seeing fragments of thigh
bones, ribs and heads. An underta-
ker of Hartford accompanied the par
ty. He and his men picked out the
remains as fast as possible and put
them separately in box. Three
charred bodies were so thoroughly
that ii was impossible to even tell
their sex in some instances. Some
made scarcely handful.
They picked up these bodies, OF
rather what renamed of them, and
went to the next burned car, the
Pullman car "St. Albans," which
came from Springfield. In this car
they could only make out three bod
les. Undoubtedly they were thrown
out. They were reduced to such a
state that they could scarcely be dis
cerned from the rest of the debris. No
doubt the bodies of many persons
were totally consumed. These bod
les were, like the rest, tenderly placed
In boxes and left on the ice waiting
removal to the dead house. From
there the party started for the third
car from the rear, or the day coach,
but as this was entirely submerged
they could make no investigation.
The fourth car from the rear, the last
remaining one, was next visited
here was presented the most horrify-
ing scenes of all. No less than twelve
bundles ofburned flesh, charred out
of all human shape, were found. In
the rear end of what had been the
car, six bodies were found, all bunch
ed together. The passengers had
haddled around the stove to keep
warm, as the night was very cold, or
else they had tried TO make their es-
cape from the rear door, and could
not get out.
Express Messenger A. S. Robins,
who was one ofthe six persons on
the wrecked Montreal train who had
passed over the bridge before the ac-
cldent occurred, said:
1T is probably one of the worst
accidents that ever took place In the
United States. When we were fairly
on the bridge we felt shock and
heard a crash behind us. When we
looked out we saw tho four rear cars
piled npon each other, over the edge
Of the bridge. They pitched over so
mot lhnf e. hnnlI.. nnun lnLo1 IL. L.